Children outside the birth family: the challenge of preserving and narrating the life story between distances and presences. Proposals for educational support

In Italy, a significant number of children live outside their birth families. It is noted that this condition represents an experience of discontinuity in the children’s life paths and requires support by professionals or foster and adoptive parents. This reality questions educational reflection since it is intertwined with the process of building personal identity. It is a challenge that involves the person throughout his or her entire life and implies elements that pertain to the sphere of memory and existential planning. This contribution intends to dwell on the educational dimensions that can guide the process of supporting children, with a view to encouraging the elaboration and the construction of a narrative identity.